Black Tennis Pros

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. (AP) - Top-seeded Nadia Petrova beat 14-year-old American Madison Keys 6-3, 6-2 in the second round of The MPS Group Championships on Wednesday night.

Petrova, ranked No. 10 in the world, won nine of the last 11 games to beat Keys, who was playing in her first WTA Tour event in the season-opening clay-court tournament.

"At the beginning of the match I didn't know what to expect," the Russian said. "She caught me by surprise."

The match was tied 3-3 in the first set before Petrova won three straight games.

"I had to make some adjustments," she said. "I was trying to go for too many winners early, trying to blow her away and just had to slow down."

Despite the loss, Keys was pleased with her play.

"When I hit a good shot she hit a good shot back," she said. "I feel pretty good about going 3 and 2 with a top 10 player."

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American Serena Williams getting practice in on Tuesday prior to her first round match on Wednesday at the Andalucia Tennis Experience in Marbella, Spain.

American Danielle Mills with coach Alex Kodacs during qualifying.

American Madison Brengle defeated Mills in the second round of qualifying.

Photos by AnDrele From Spain

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This evening, in the first round, American James Blake was eliminated from the singles competition at the U.S. Men's Clay Court Championship in Houston, Texas. Blake lost to Argentine Guillermo Canas 6-4, 6-4.

"It turned on a few key points . . . at times I beat myself out there,” Blake said. “I made too many errors. He kind of forces you into that with how well he plays defense, but there’s really no excuse for those errors, especially the ones I made at key times.

"If you expect to win matches and tournaments, you’ve got to play better on those points. I would have liked my chances if I’d gotten that last break.”

Having recently fallen out of the world's top ten, Blake is now ranked #17 on the ATP World Tour.

Photo by Getty Images

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American Scoville Jenkins advanced to round 2 of the U.S. Men's Clay Court Championship in Houston, Texas today. Jenkins took out Austrian Alexander Peya 0-6, 6-4, 6-3.

Jenkins is currently ranked on the ATP World Tour at 202.

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Past champions James Blake and Mardy Fish rallied to defeat wild card duo Amer Delic and Robert Kendrick 4-6, 6-4, 10-7 in an all-American first round match Monday at the US Men’s Clay Court Championship, an ATP World Tour 250 tennis tournament.

Blake and Fish clinched the Houston title on their team’s event debut in 2004 (d. Leach-MacPhie), and were also semi-finalists in ’06. The two are playing together for the second time this year; they reached the semi-finals in February at San Jose, but withdrew prior to the match due to Blake’s right ankle injury.

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PONTE VEDRA BEACH, FL, USA - American Madison Keys added her name to the history books Monday, becoming the seventh-youngest player ever to win a Sony Ericsson WTA Tour singles main draw match.

Keys, who played her first professional event on the ITF Women's Circuit recently in Fort Walton Beach but fell first round, was a wildcard into The MPS Group Championships this week and made excellent use of that, beating world No.81 Alla Kudryavtseva of Russia, 75 64. She rallied from 5-2 down to win the first set and hit four aces in the second set - including one on match point.

"The last couple of days were just practice and getting ready for my first round, and after today I have to go back out and do the same thing for my next match," Keys said. "I don't really look past my next match. I just take it day by day."

Keys, originally from Chicago, now lives in Boca Raton and trains at the Evert Academy, coached by John Evert. Among her junior accomplishments are Under 12 titles at Eddie Herr and the Orange Bowl in 2007, and she lists clay as her favorite surface. At the Sony Ericsson Open in Miami two years ago, Portugal's Michelle Larcher de Brito became the seventh-youngest player to win a singles main draw match on the Tour; Keys beat her by just four days.

The following is a list of the 10 youngest players ever to win a main draw match in singles on the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour:

1. Fernandez, Mary Joe (13 years & 6 months - 1985 Miami)
2. Capriati, Jennifer (13 years & 11 months - 1990 Boca Raton)
3. Graf, Steffi (13 years, 11 months & 10 days - 1983 Roland Garros)
4. Hingis, Martina (14 years & 1 week - 1994 Zürich)
5. Rinaldi, Kathy (14 years & 3 weeks - 1981 Amelia Island)
6. Austin, Tracy (14 years & 1 month - 1977 Portland)
7. Keys, Madison (14 years & 48 days - 2009 Ponte Vedra Beach)
8. Larcher de Brito, Michelle (14 years & 52 days - 2007 Miami)
9. Rehe, Stephanie (14 years & 2 months - 1984 Hershey)
10. Sabatini, Gabriela (14 years, 2 months & 2 weeks - 1984 Indianapolis)

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SINGLES

Round 1

Serena Williams defeated by Klara Zakopalova, CZE
6-4, 3-6, 6-1


Eliminated during singles qualifying rounds:

Danielle Mills, USA


SINGLES

Round 1

(WC)Madison Keys, USA defeated Alla Kudryavtseva, RUS
7-5, 6-4

Round 2

Madison Keys, USA defeated by Nadia Petrova, RUS
6-3, 6-2


DOUBLES

Round 1

Raquel Kops-Jones, USA and Abigail Spears, USA
defeated by
Kveta Peschke, CZE and Lisa Raymond, USA
7-5, 4-6 [2-10]

Mashona Washington, USA and Jill Craybas, USA
defeated by
Caroline Wozniacki, DEN and Barbora Zahlavova Strycova, CZE
6-2, 1-6, [10-7]

Angela Haynes, USA and Liga Dekmeijere, LAT
defeated
Christina Fusano, USA and Alexa Glatch, USA
1-6, 6-4, [10-4]


Quarterfinal Round

Angela Haynes, USA and Liga Dekmeijere, LAT
defeated
Shuai Peng, CHN and Zi Yan, CHN
7-6(3), 6-4


Semifinal Round

Angela Haynes, USA and Liga Dekmeijere, LAT
defeated by
Chia-Jung Chuang, TPE and Sania Mirza, IND
4-6, 3-6


SINGLES

Round 1

James Blake, USA defeated by Guillermo Canas, ARG
6-4, 6-4

(Q)Scoville Jenkins, USA defeated Alexander Peya, AUT
0-6, 6-4, 6-3


Eliminated during singles qualifying rounds:

Donald Young, USA


DOUBLES

Round 1

James Blake, USA and Mardy Fish, USA
defeated
Amer Delic, USA and Robert Kendrick, USA
4-6, 6-4 [10/7]


Round 2

James Blake, USA and Mardy Fish, USA
defeated
James Cerretani, USA and Dick Norman, BEL
6-3, 7-6(0)


SINGLES

Round 1

Megan Moulton-Levy, USA defeated Ellie Yates, USA
7-5, 6-1


Round 2

Megan Moulton-Levy, USA defeated by Yuliana Fedak, UKR
1-6, 2-6


Eliminated during singles qualifying rounds:

Whitney Jones, USA


DOUBLES

Round 1

Megan Moulton-Levy, USA and Laura Siegemund, GER
defeated
Heidi El Tabakh, CAN and Story Tweedie-Yates, USA
6-4, 7-5


Quarterfinal Round

Megan Moulton-Levy, USA and Laura Siegemund, GER
defeated by
Kimberly Couts, USA and Sharon Fichman, CAN
2-6, 3-6


SINGLES

Round 1

(WC)Jarmere Jenkins, USA defeated by (Q)Vladimir Obradovic, SRB
4-6, 4-6

Nicholas Monroe, USA defeated by Matthias Bachinger, GER
3-6, 6-4, 4-6


DOUBLES

Round 1

Nicholas Monroe, USA and Ryler Deheart, USA
defeated by
Lester Cook, USA and Shane LaPorte, USA
2-6, 4-6


SINGLES

Round 1

Marcus Fugate, USA defeated Milos Raonic, CAN
7-6(6), 6-2

Todd Paul, USA defeated Luis David Martinez, VEN
6-0, 6-2


Round 2

Todd Paul, USA defeated Adrians Zguns
6-1, 6-2

Marcus Fugate, USA defeated M. Roberts, USA
6-4, 7-6(4)


Quarterfinal Round

Marcus Fugate, USA defeated by Matej Bocko, SVK
4-6, 4-6

Paul Todd, USA defeated by Tigran Martirosyan, ARM
6-7(5), 2-6


DOUBLES

Round 1

Marcus Fugate, USA and Nima Roshan, AUS
defeated by
Matthew Roberts, USA and Adrians Zguns, LAT
7-6(6), 6-7(4) [7-10]

Devin Mullings, BAH and Dennis Zivkovic, USA
defeated
Luis Diaz-Barriga, MEX and Antonio Ruiz-Rosales, MEX

7-5, 6-4


Quarterfinal Round

Devin Mullings, BAH and Dennis Zivkovic, USA
defeated by
Matthew Roberts, USA and Adrians Zguns, LAT
1-6, 7-6(10) [4-10]

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PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. (AP) — Fourteen-year-old Madison Keys made her WTA Tour debut a memorable one, upsetting Russia's Alla Kudryavtseva 7-5, 6-4 on Monday in the opening round of The MPS Group Championships.

The teen from Boca Raton, Fla., fell behind 5-2 in the first set but used powerful groundstrokes to break Kudryavtseva twice and a serve that averaged 101 mph to win the set.

Keys lost the first game of the second set before going on a four-game run, and after the 81st-ranked Kudryavtseva fought back to 4-5, Keys won the match with an ace.

"The first two or three games I was nervous," she said. "It was kind of just the first few games of just hitting the ball and feeling it and really getting into a rhythm that made me feel a lot better."

Keys could face the tournament's top seed and the world's ninth-ranked player, Nadia Petrova, in the second round. The Russian opens play Tuesday against Olga Govortsova.

"I actually got into tennis because of Venus and Serena (Williams)," Keys said. "I was watching Wimbledon one year and Venus was playing and I really liked how she was playing but I also liked her outfit.

"I told my dad I wanted a dress like Venus' and he said 'only if you play tennis.' So, I went to Walgreen's, got a racket and started playing."

Keys gets press grilling after big win:

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